Politics

EXCLUSIVE: New GOP Ad Rips Into Democrats’ Support For Defunding Police Amid Crime Surge

Screenshot via House Republican Conference

Michael Ginsberg Congressional Correspondent
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A new video produced by the House Republican Conference highlights prominent Democrats’ support for defunding police amid a spike in crime and the White House’s attempt to redirect the issue back at Republicans.

The video, obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller, will be released Wednesday on GETTR, Republican Conference Chairwoman and New York Rep. Elise Stefanik confirmed. It includes clips of then-candidates Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, as well as Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota expressing support for cutting police budgets. (RELATED: ‘The Squad’ Pushes To ‘Defund The Police’ While Spending Thousands On Private Security To Protect Themselves)

“Democrats’ support for the ‘Defund the Police’ movement has had a devastating effect on America. There is a direct correlation between defund the police policies and spikes in crime,” Stefanik told the Daily Caller.

Biden repeatedly said throughout June 2020 that he does not support defunding the police, as previously reported. However, Biden said he “absolutely” agreed with “re-directing” police funding, during a July 8, 2020, interview with NowThis.

Harris repeatedly called on Americans to “reimagine” policing and public safety during appearances on CNN and ABC’s “The View.”

However, amid rising violent rising crime rates, the Biden administration has claimed that Republicans supported defunding the police. Press secretary Jen Psaki and Senior Advisor Cedric Richmond blamed Republicans for defunding the police by opposing the American Rescue Plan (ARP), which included $350 billion for state and local governments. The ARP did not require state and local governments to give that money to police departments, although they were not prohibited from doing so.

Stefanik pointed to a recent Washington Post fact-check that described the claim as “slipshod,” awarding it three “Pinocchios.”

Even the hack fact-checkers at the Washington Post know that the Democrats’ claim about Republicans wanting to defund the police is false,” she added. Stefanik recently feuded with the Washington Post over immigration claims.

Stefanik explained that the video would be launched on GETTR, a social media app developed and launched by former White House aide Jason Miller. GETTR was hacked on its launch day, July 4, although Miller said that the security problem has since been fixed.

“The House GOP decided to release this video exclusively on the new social media app GETTR because free speech is protected there,” Stefanik continued, “Unlike other social media platforms that protected Democrats like President Biden in 2020 by falsely claiming he did not say, ‘yes, yes, absolutely,’ when asked whether he supported redirecting police funding.”

A fact-check from Politifact described a July 2020 campaign ad from America First Action, which included Biden’s NowThis interview overlaid by text reading “Defund The Police?”, as “mischaracteriz[ing] Biden’s position on defunding the police.”

Facebook “reduces the number of people who see” posts that fact-checkers label false, according to its Help Center.